The conventional pick-up truck, having a tailgate which can be secured in an upright position to define a containment space over a load bed and which can be lowered to a substantially horizontal position, is now a very common vehicle in most countries. The utility of such a truck is generally limited by the size of its load-carrying containment space. Since it is not practical to have a pick-up truck of adjustable width, and since long objects usually cannot conveniently be carried upright, often the only effective way to enlarge the load-carrying space is to lower the tailgate to its open horizontal position. While this may enable a user of the truck to carry relatively long loads, such use may be in violation of traffic regulations and, also, it may be difficult to ensure secure retention of the long load within the extended space on the truck. There is, therefore, a clear need for an economical way to enlarge the load-carrying portion of a conventional pick-up truck while ensuring safe containment of a load carried therein.
There is yet another kind of utility which a user may find highly desirable, namely the facility for deploying one or more power tools on the truck for machining of wood or metal workpieces, e.g., for repairs, construction, or other similar applications. Preferably, any modification of the conventional pick-up truck tailgate for this purpose should enable a user, at low cost and with little effort, to be able both to enlarge the load-carrying space and to create an effective workbench equipped with one or more power tools.
An exemplary structure for simply extending the load-carrying space of a pick-up truck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,639 to Bianchi, titled "TAILGATE ATTACHMENT FOR EXTENDING THE CARGO SPACE OF VEHICLES", which provides a hinged back panel with a pair of side panels pivotably attached to the sides thereof, the panels being compactly carried against the inside surface of the closed tailgate when not in use and being pivotable into a perpendicular relationship with respect to the opened tailgate. In effect, the disclosed structure creates a pseudo-tailgate and planar extensions of the sides of the pick-up truck.
Another somewhat similar solution is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,773 to Smith, titled "VEHICLE TAILGATE EXTENSION ASSEMBLY", which provides a slidingly stored assembly of flat panels normally folded away adjacent an inside surface of the tailgate and disposable to form extended sides and a back in a manner generally similar to that of Bianchi.
Permanently attached and slidably disposable structures for effectively extending the tailgate rearwardly of the truck are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,850 to Tillcry, titled "TAILGATE EXTENSION", and U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,213 to Palmer, titled "EXTENDABLE VEHICLE TAILGATE ASSEMBLY".
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,306 to Linder, titled "CABINET AND TABLE UNIT FOR A VEHICLE" and U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,027, to Temp, titled "DRAWER UNIT FOR PICK-UP TRUCKS", teach examples of known structures which include slidably extendable work surfaces and sets of drawers for containing work tools that may be provided to conventional pick-up trucks. Such structures are relatively complex, heavy and expensive.
The above-discussed exemplary prior art does not provide a user the option, with a single structure to readily increase his load-carrying space or to set up a workbench to which he may mount one or more power tools for convenient machining of workpieces at the truck tailgate itself. The present invention is intended to meet this perceived need.